Manus Review, Pricing & Alternatives (2026)

Manus is a general AI agent made by Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd., the Singapore company behind the service. Butterfly Effect was founded in Beijing in 2022 by Xiao Hong, Yichao Ji, and Tao Zhang, then moved its headquarters and core team to Singapore in mid-2025. Manus reportedly had millions of users and more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue by December 2025. Meta announced an approximately $2 billion acquisition that month, but China ordered the transaction unwound on April 27, 2026. Manus formally resumed independent operations on September 1, 2026, with its founding team continuing to lead the company. A September 2026 report said Manus was discussing a $500 million fundraise at a $4 billion valuation, although that financing was not presented as completed.

Manus turns a natural-language goal into a multi-step task that runs in a cloud computer. A typical project can include web research, browser actions, file uploads, document creation, spreadsheet work, slide generation, website building, code, or deployment. Projects group related work, while connectors bring outside services into tasks. Scheduled Automations can run on a schedule, and the 2.0 release adds triggers for events such as new email, advertising changes, calendar events, Slack messages, or Notion updates. Manus Studio organizes documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, slides, websites, code, games, and video work. Its API creates and manages tasks, sends follow-up messages, uploads files, receives webhooks, and supports built-in or custom skills.

Manus 2.0, released on September 28, 2026, introduces the Cascade agent architecture, Cloud Computer environments, Automations, Manus Studio, Video Editor, and Game Dev. Manus says Cascade selects specialized capabilities as a project requires them. In one company test configuration, the company reported 23.2% lower token use, 28.2% faster completion, and 32% lower cost than its previous system. Manus does not require one named model for every task. Manus Flex lets customers connect a supported inference provider through their own API key. The provider bills model inference directly, while Manus credits continue covering other task services and infrastructure. Manus 2.0 is available on the web, desktop, and mobile.

The Free tier costs $0 per month and includes Chat Mode, Manus 2.0 Lite in Agent Mode, 300 daily refresh credits, one concurrent task, and two Scheduled Automations. Pro starts at $20 per month for 4,000 monthly credits, rises to $40 for 8,000 credits, and reaches $200 for 40,000 credits. Annual billing saves 17%, producing effective monthly prices of about $16.60, $33.20, and $166 when paid annually. Team pricing is listed at $20 per seat monthly in the help center and $49.99 per active user monthly on its pricing page, so buyers should confirm checkout pricing. Team adds SSO, training opt-out, usage analytics, internal access control, and shared slide templates. Enterprise pricing is custom.

Manus has a broad task surface, but its credit pricing makes the cost of a finished task difficult to predict. Credits do not roll over, and different projects consume different amounts. ChatGPT is closer to a conversational assistant and model-access product, while Manus centers on delegated tasks that return files, sites, or reports. Claude emphasizes chat, writing, and coding workflows. Replit focuses more narrowly on software projects and repository-style development, while Manus covers research, documents, slides, media, and applications. The privacy policy permits processing user content to deliver and improve services, and Team includes a training opt-out. Pick Manus if you want one workspace for varied, multi-step deliverables and accept credit-based billing.